Grrl Power #413 – Green herring
Ok you guys are going to have to bear with me for one more page. I really tried to make this a double to clear up what has Max wound up, but after the previous double pages and the sword wall, I was on the verge of falling behind. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the payoff. And anyway I really wanted to get in Deus pulling the red herring gag on Max.
Who knows if the version of how he got that bowl is just as relayed on this page or this is a little punched up for her benefit. Well, he would, obviously. Dumb question really. I’m casting doubt at you! Level 2 wizard spell! Roll to save!
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My guess is that the items is something from the mosque incident.
hehe let it be so please
[Wall O’ Text] i don’t think he SAID anything AT ALL to Max about how he got it… i think that this is just him reminiscing about the WAY he got the ?ashtray? from the kid… basically i think the scene is that Max got up to leave (yesterday, panel 4), did her shoulder twitch thing in panel 5, and then in response to her “polite question” in panel 6… he turned around in his chair, grabbed the green thing and said out loud what he says in today’s panels 3 and 4… meaning that panels 1 and 2 of today’s comic are actually only a memory (i can’t really call it a “flashback”, but how ELSE are WE the READERS going to “know” what he’s thinking, right?)
and just like the ACTUAL cause of HOW the Son taking over as Ruler in Galytn (that WE saw) is NOT known to ARCHON in general (or probably too many others either, I’m sure) especially since we saw how he made it seem on the newscast, where he refers to Indinge’s health “taking a sharp downturn” re-read the yellow text-boxes during that scene (which is what he’s saying to C.C. St. Croix publicly) as compared to what he REALLY said in the “standard” speech-bubbles… I’ll hazard a bet the most of the country’s citizens SUSPECT that the killed off the father, just because of the stereotypical attitude of: “that’s the way thing’s get done” in that part of the world (ALSO stereotypical)… but they can’t PROVE IT… so it stays as an unsubstantiated rumor that helps him maintain control, both there and here. we just don’t have enough info to REALLY dig deep yet… so until that info comes to light (ARC-Light probably) he is still the “Benevolent Sponsor” of the Galytn People… otherwise he would have been dropped like a hot potato from the position of being a major supplier of materiel to ARCHON…
Oddly enough, this was the item that I thought Max was pointing at in the last comic.
Even if the U.S. government knew, that would necessarily preclude him from being a major supplier. The U.S. government and military has been repeatedly proven to do business with very nasty people and very sketchy corporations, only severing ties when PR blowback gets too intense or if the corporation starts sponsoring our enemies in a way that is too diametrically opposed to our own goals. As I imagine that Galytn is not opposed to U.S. interests and Deus is on top of his PR (Not to mention that the region is what Garth Ennis called “Faraway brown people” and, as such, isn’t likely to generate PR blowback). Unless Galytn stays on the right side of our trade restrictions list, the U.S. government won’t care or, in other words:
“It’s just business”
“Would not necessarily”
Curse the lack of an edit function.
https://youtu.be/7xL38iXXwwM?t=52
The reason we don’t have an edit is so that Dave can get some schadenfreude out of all of our mistakes.
Hey! I only just now noticed that Deus ties the trinity for his necktie! That’s awesome! ^^
Omg, the stripes on the floor in panel one. I get what they are and I bloody well wish hospitals would learn this fabulous technology rather than some sign indicating (insert desired target here) is somewhere in that region of the hospital. Nothing quite like wandering for 10 min to find somewhere you’ve never seen or been to before. >.>
The hospital where I live has both signs and colored lines.
You live in a hospital? :D
Yes, in what is known as the Mental health facility.
It beats dying in one I guess.
Also, does Deus exclusively use the Trinity Knot? Seems a bit predictable for him. I at least try and switch it up every once in a while.
If he’s like me, it may be the only one he knows.
I don’t think he’s trolling Maxima with the story, because I don’t think he would actually tell Maxima anything that would imply he killed the previous ruler of that country. Which the story kinda does.
Look at his lips in the last panel. You can feel the smug.
Once again, I’m thinking that Deus the most ‘good’ supervillain I’ve ever seen, because so far he hasnt done anything evil. Killing a murderous tyrant (who was going to try to shoot him on top of everything else after he offered a non-violent plan) and making everyone’s lives in that country better and into a first world nation where they’re not poor and not worried about being raped and killed and tortured….
Yep, Deus is the good guy. Plus sentimental enough to value the ashtray that a little girl gave him in thanks along with his other priceless artifacts in his office.
Well.. a good guy at least where Galytin is concerned.
“Villain with good publicity” at least.
Good enough that even though people in Galytin know that he had the older warlord killed, they nevertheless love him, because the old warlord WAS a villain who tortured them, stole from them, enslaved and killed them, while Deus made them safe, financially stable, well-fed and schooled, and gave them a positive future. :)
Plus – sorry – I just find it adorable that the ‘villain’ seems to cherish a simple bowl/ashtray that a little girl gave him in thanks for freeing them from the evil warlord and making their lives better :)
Or perhaps he is just smart and pragmatic enough to realise that being too bad and attacking people who don’t deserve it will just make everyone join force against him. He clearly enjoys doing typical supervillain things.
To be fair, I think most people enjoy doing supervillain things whether or not they plan on becoming supervillains. It’s like Vince McMahon, his entrance specifically. I can’t imagine more of a thrill than strutting down an aisle to music insulting everyone around you while thousands of people boo you lustfully. The evil strut just screams supervillain, but it’s all done for fun so it has to be addictive.
Deus is doing something similar just without everyone being in on the joke. The over the top evil laugh, the lightning wall, the minions, and the corporate mission statement. If he’s doing something evil, it is a lot more subtle and he’s just having the time of his life playing the fool. I bet he even stands in front of a mirror and says “I think I’ll be evil today.”
I just think he’s awesome. He’s rapidly becoming my favorite character. Maxima and Sydney are still at the top though, but I think Deus has surpassed Mathias for #3.
Nope. It’s just that cartoons have trained you to believe that all villains enjoy kicking puppies.
Deus is probably not an evil man, but one unfettered by moral inhibitions – focussed on achieving a goal, and going about it in a way that is most conductive to his ambitions. So far his biggest strength seems to be, that he doesn’t just default to evil when he has to come up with a plan.
Even emotionally he is a normal person (hence so many humanizing moments for him). What will probably be driven home at the end of his involvement, is the point, that you don’t have to be inhuman to be a absolutely terryfing monster.
I dunno. I think that the people who truly are human are the ones that are most capable of becoming terrifying monsters…and I don’t know if Deus is really trying to be a terrifying monster. I think he’s really more just one of those people who doesn’t really have limits. He probably knew that killing the former king of Galtyn was wrong, which was why he approached the man to make his offer in the first place. Likely, it would have been more convenient to terrorize the son from the beginning, than to make the offer to the parent, and then have to kill him when the king refused. It certainly would have been less risky. But he felt the king deserved a chance to make the right choice, so the king got the chance. Just like, if he ever captures the heroes, he’ll give them the chance to make what he views as the right choice…and if they don’t make the choice he wants, he’ll deal with them immediately.
He’s not a monster, I guess, but he doesn’t really look at the rest of us as necessarily being fully human, either…and that may be the most terrifying aspect of all.
personally with her reaction I think it is something embarrassing from her past. before joining the military. like a resque picture, or maybe the one and only copy left of an adult movie she is trying to forget. lol.
What is Maxima having such a fit over? Dunno, but here’s my idea! If I’m remembering correctly, DaveB said somewhere that we’d eventually get to meet her brother. My suspicion then is that whatever Max has spotted is something that belongs to her brother! It would certainly open up a bunch of story possibilities and it would offer a good reason for the guy’s introduction to the comic.
i’m sure somebody else has said this already, but it would make my year or three, if this reveal was played out for even longer than the contents of tubey took.
Actually, at the moment, i think that’s the only thing in life i really want :)
Thats so cute story. A thosen tyrrant shoud trembel in fear.
The first two panels are weirdly heartwarming.
I have been pondering if DaveB is gonna play the trope averted trope and make Deus actually a SuperSwell Guy who has enough money to fix world problems (and pad his own nest eggs nest egg) so he does.
Like if Superman/Kal’el was super rich and not “born” on a farm. Deus could just play off the egomaniac with a Narcissist Jesus complex to keep himself at arms reach of people thinking to use his goodwill to their erroneous advantage.
The day that little girl cashes in on that promise is going to be an interesting day.
What promise? There was no promise made
To kill a thousand tyrants for her.
I feel like, given Deus’ general level of sass with Max so far, the item was one of the three adjacent to the adorable green dish of some sort. My money’s on the one dead center in the whole shelf, since Deus was disappointed that Max didn’t spot it at first.
The purple crystals? o_O
It’s possible we haven’t seen the item in question at all! There were three objects in the top row and three in the middle but we could only see two on the bottom because Deus was in the way. Notice that he swivels his chair just before Max gets up, giving her a clear view for just a brief moment. Hiding something so openly just feels like something he would do.
DaveB either outright said or implied that we had seen what it was, so it has to be one of the six (five now) items we saw but couldn’t identify (DaveB stated that the crystal was not Maxi’s favourite dildo but the Shard of the Dark Crystal {personally can’t see why it can’t both} and the golden hawk was actually a de-gemmed Maltese Falcon)
Wait, what if Deus’ power is “cutscene?” He sure interjects a lot in Sydney’s flashback. That would explain how he, of all people, managed to get a date with Maxima.
Oops, nope. I just forgot the others.
I like that he understands the truth so many ignore about money. No, there is nothing you can’t buy. But important things become less important if you take them without earning them. I don’t think I can name a single entity claiming to be antagonistic that understood that.
The little girl is very cute.
… I shudder to imagine what Machina may yet do to that country, and how many innocent hearts will be broken when he does.
I’d imagine that the purpose of becoming the financial controller of a country would be tax free monetary holdings (for himself). His bank role IS the country.
Talk about tax evasion! Tax evasion and millions of workers as his disposal.
Makes me wonder why other rich guys haven’t gone down this route… Lack of supers perhaps?
Um, what makes you think they haven’t? And I mean over and over again. You think “off shore accounts” just happened? There’s little crappy island-nations with bizarre laws all over this globe that exist only because they provide shelter for the less visible ‘Deus’s of the world.
You mean, make it a thriving First World country? How dare he do such an evil and underhanded thing!! He must be stopped immediately!!!
Yeesh! Who put a bee in her undies?
Would Max even notice a bee in her undies?
Well maybe if it was buzzing…
Deus, clearly.
Are we all really looking at a cracked up geode/meteorite set -dead center- in the cabinet and NOT assuming it has something to do with the origin of Max’s powers?
Heh heh hee… Called it :).
It’s a pity Maxima is so riled up that she misses the weak spot in his logic. “There are some things money can’t buy. Well, there aren’t, but in some rare cases, buying a thing would devalue it.” You could argue that therefore, one thing money can’t buy is the extra value that would be removed by buying something that fits those “rare cases”. I kinda wonder if that might not throw him off-center just a bit.
If he wasn’t confessing to Regicide, Panel 2 would be the perfect PR shot.
I just remembered something from back in Sydney’s orientation.
She is scheduled to attend the premiere of the new Avengers movie in a few weeks.
I wonder who she will take as her date? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1836
She might take her dad for some geeked out father-daughter bonding. I came to that thought because of her phone call to her parents at the steakhouse, and the earlier interview in the “ballroom’.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1206
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/456
Let’s hope Deus don’t have a file on ALL ARC members and their families,cause that’ll be similar to the G.I.Joe episode Cobra’s Captives.Can you all imagine hearing Michael Bell’s voice as the computer when Deus accesses certain files,for example:
CODE NAME:Maxima
REAL NAME:Maximilla Leander
SURVIVING RELATIVES:Mother,Father and Brother
CURRENT PLACE OF RESIDENCE:Memphis,Tennessee
Unless Maxima is NOT from there?!?! I’m gonna let the author decide…! :)
Certainly Deus can manipulate the Arc members to do as he pleases or he’ll harm their loved ones…!
Looks like Deus has a bit of a soft side. Well, about as soft as one with his goals can get.
So imagine the little goals in life for a billionaire to be content with;
quietly acquiring a “thing” whatever it turns out to be, probably at great cost.
placing it on display in you office and carefully arranging the other “nick nacks” so at the right time you can deliberately draw out the moment by talking about a different “thing”
waiting for Months for the right time when the right person happens to see it on display.
All for one of these moments (plus whatever happens next): https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1886
totally worth it and shows the work of a true master I wonder if the “anger album” has a new contributor…
How did that go?
“Do not taunt the happy fun Maxima?”
…Actually do; it’s kind of hilarious! ^_^
Dammit. I failed my save XD.
I really like Deus, because I *still* can’t tell what makes him tick, or whose “side” he’s on (aside from his own, if any), or what his “endgame” is. That’s very rare in a “villain”-type character, because it’s remarkably hard to write that well.
EIGHT! I ROLLED AN EIGHT! what was I rolling for again? *checks comic author commentary* oh… Right well that was good. (I had dice next to my computer randomly)
Awww, Darn! I rolled a 1. Twice!
Now, I doubt everything!!!
Reading back on this, I just noticed Deus’ stubble on the flashback page. I think its a super nice touch! It makes him look more rugged, and also ups my opinion of him a little, as he’s not taking the time for a fancy shave or however rich people do it while helping rebuild the country. Makes him seem a little more caring.
…Though now I’m wondering if that’s all just puppetry on his part.
A couple of pages and years ago I talked about how Deus seems to have no concept of “making” stuff. All he understands is taking stuff from other people, to the point he thinks “greed” is the basic motivation for everyone else too. I must have missed this further confirmation of my theory. I mean, there are things right here in my head that you can’t own for love or money, and I’m a decidedly amateur writer. Imagine trying to bribe or torture Bill Watterson into drawing more Calvin & Hobbes for you. That guy has integrity you can’t buy. It’s not that killing the hostages will devalue the artistic merit of the strips; it’s that it won’t make him budge.
/r 1d20+2
…
That doesn’t work here?